Burbank Residents Nervous After Gang Shootings

Lorraine Swanson (Oak Lawn Patch) | August 21, 2012

Facing a council room of scared residents, Burbank Mayor Harry J. Klein blamed parents, city interlopers and the court system for the town’s uptick in gang violence during a city council meeting on Aug. 15.

After two gang-related shootings is as many weeks, 150 residents packed Burbank City Hall and demanded their local elected officials to “get these people out of our neighborhood.”

In the early morning hours of Aug. 2, four people were shot during a party outside a home on the 6400 block of West 86th Street. All four were treated at Advocate Christ Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries.

The second shooting occurred around 10 p.m. Aug. 12, on the 8200 block of Lamon Avenue. Bullets hit two cars and a building. Burbank Police said the shooting was not random and believe that a person walking down the street to be the target of a drive-by shooting.

Both shootings occurred near Burbank grammar schools.

“I’ve been out here for 45 years and to be honest with you I’ve never seen this kind of activity,” Klein said. “I’m sorry it’s happening in the city of Burbank.”